first time in Italy
 

we're a little concerned about cars -trains and buses. we prefer not to have a car in florence when we arrive and stay for 3 days..but do want one in siena to do the hill towns.
here's our itinerary so far
florence 3 nites
sienna 3-4 nites
lucca and pisa 3 nites
depart florence sept 17
so the questions are
can we train or bus to sienna from florence /train or bus to lucca from sienna/train or bus back to florence airport
and rent a car in sienna?
can anyone make suggestions about these plans?
thanks

Dear jaimeenid:

I am not sure exactly what you want to do, but this is what we did in 1994:

Venice 2 nights- train to:

Florence 2 nights - pick up car, see Pisa on the way to:

Cinque Terre 2 nights - drive to:

Siena 3 nights with day trips in the area - see towns on the way to:

Bagnoregio/Orvieto 2 nights

Drop the car at the Rome airport
Rome four nights

Good luck on your planning.

You can travel by bus (and train) between all those places, possibly with some connections required. And it's fun. It's also fun to see the countryside by car if you enjoy driving and don't panic when you get a little lost. Your plan to do without a car in Florence is correct, it would be an expense and a hassle, unless you were going out to the country every day or something.
Whether you get a car depends completely on how much 'free form" day excursions you want to do. If you have good ideas about things you want to drive to, then do it. If you are thinking of the car strictly for getting from A to B, skip it and take the train and bus. You have to watch schedules, but you don't have to PARK!

Hey I am just curious. If it's your first time in Italy why do you want to spend ur entire time in Tuscany?

Why not change the order a little? Go from Florence to Lucca by train, then on to Pisa by train (I would prefer staying in Lucca and going to Pisa as a daytrip, although either would work), then pick up your car in Lucca/Pisa, drive to Siena, then drive the car to Florence airport when you depart. That will allow you to use the car to take you to the airport, and save time.

I agree with the previous poster why just tuscanny??? With your time frame you could easily do a little rome, a little florence, a little hill town, and cinque terra. Very doable.

A tour encompassing several cities is do-able, yes, but for my money there is a lot of pleasure to be had in unpacking once and getting more than a brief impression of a place.

Jaimeenid is already talking about 3 cities in ten days, and there is certainly enough in the 120 or so Km between Lucca and Siena to fill those days.

Italy is as different and varied north to south as the US, so there is definitely more to see than just Tuscany. That said, there is no real reason to run around unless you like a more "active" itinerary. Just to "see" more? Well, as with eating well, gluttony for "sights" can kill the appetite for good! You end up with a lot of pictures of things you can't quite remember seeing ...

To each his own, but there's a lot of pleasure to be had in walking the same streets for several days, taking coffee in the same cafe, etc. What you see on the 5th day will be different from what grabbed your attention the first.

Great points, I agree. It boils down to the type of experience your after.

The easiest place in Italy to pick up and leave a rent car is the Pisa Airport. Take a train from Florence and start your drive tour from there.

i really appreciate all responses but i have to agree most with tomassocroccante
we spent a whole week in merida and most people go there for a nite or two.
it was wonderful getting to know all the different little sections of town...
we like to walk and go back again and again to places we enjoyed..it's all about feeling & smelling the place

You're right you don't want to drive in Florence. It's real easy to get a car at the Florence airport. It is very close to main road. You can hope right on and be in Siena in hour 1/2. The road is four lane and well marked. Can make a side trip to San G, etc on the way or after you get there. Siena has large parking garage that is fairly easy to get in and out of.

Lucca is about same distance.

had received best rates from
http://www.italybycar.it/default.asp in Milan and Florence in the past. But
www.autoeurope.com or
www.kemwel.com
might be better now.

If you're going into and out of Florence, I'd recommend doing Lucca and Piza and then driving to Siena. Are some pretty back roads and coast roads you can take. Volterra is kinda on the way for instance.

Lucca is easy town to drive into or is at least from Pisa side. I would stay in Lucca in old city within the walls and bus or train to Pisa. I drove through Pisa and it wasn't bad. Leaning tower, etc, are all the way through town if you come from south or Lucca.

We've stayed in all of the cities except Pisa. Florence is by far our favorite. If i win the lottery, I'm going to live in Tuscany part of the year. We have to force ourselves to go anywhere else and are feeling sorry for ourselves that we haven't been since September.

In addition to Fodors guide, we always use Rick Steves. His driving directions are very good and he always tells where the WC's are.

I have some recommendations on Florence hotels if you need any help there. Feel free to contact me. And I hope I'm not pontificating and tell you stuff you know.

Happy planning.

HI J,

You can take the SITA bus from Florence to Siena and pick up a car there.

See www.autoeurope.com
www.gemut.com
www.novacarhire.com

Italy requires CDW and an International Driver's Permit.
See www.aaasouth.com if you are in the US.

((I))

thank you all for such thoughtful and personal responses.
we decided to bus to siena and rent a car there for travel around the hilltowns - and drop the car in lucca - stay there for the weekend antique market - then public transit to florence airport.
car rental-wise - we had to book with www.TigerCarRental.com because we couldn't get a good rate from the others for an automatic.
as for the hill towns we're staying in Siena driving to Greve, Monterigionni,
Orvieto, stay over in Pienza, then drive north and see Volterra -where is Montepulciano on this route???
Does this sound do-able?

Montepulciano is south of Siena between Orvieto and Pienza.

Hi J,

It's 44 min to Pisa airport from Lucca via Pisa.

It's about 2:15 hr to Florence airport via Florence.

Pisa PSA often has better schedules/prices than Florence FLR.

>-where is Montepulciano on this route???

See www.viamichelin.com and www.mappy.com

((I))

I love tuscany. .There's lots there. But what will you be doing in Sienna and Lucca for 7 nights, while only giving Florence 3 nights. Please don't take this as a judgement, but I was just there and you could easily rent a house outside of florence and do all you've described(with or without a car).

I honestly don't understand the facination with Tuscany when Umbria is so much more beautiful and unspoiled. Florence has the art treasures and Siena has charm of her own and they are nice bases, so I understand a few days in each, but the others can be enjoyed in a day, max, and then on to Assisi, Perugia, Orvieto, etc.

Pisa and Lucca can be easily day-tripped from Florence.